Resiliency

DaChawn Kincaid

Brief Origin of the Concept of Resilience (McAslan 2010)

★ Term first introduced in the early 17th century

★ No record of scholarly work about resiliency until 18th century

★ Robert Mallet used this term to measure and differentiate ship materials

★ Mallet developed a measure called the “Modulus of resilience”

Degrees of resilience (Southwick, 2014)★ Biological factors

★ Psychological factors

★ Social factors

★ Cultural factors

The Simple Definition(Southwick, 2014)

★ Ability to recover and grow from difficulty★ Never breaking despite exposure ★ Ability to harness resources for well-being★ Ability to anticipate and weather any type of shock

Typology for the definitions of resilience

★ Cyber

★ Psychological

★ Coastal

★ Economic

★ Ecological

★ Cultural

Cyber Resilience (Jensen 2015)

★ The ability to identify, assess and manage risks against a person’s or organization’s digital

information systems

★ The ability to respond and recover from an incident related to organization’s or people’s

digital information

Equifax and Cyber Resilience

Equifax is a credit reporting agency that comes up with credit scores for people based on certain

information about them. Recently, this agency has found itself in turmoil. It was recently

breached and the personal information of millions have been stolen by hackers. This could lead

to said hackers stealing people’s identity to open new bank accounts in their name. This is an

example of a company that does not have optimal cyber resiliency (Williams 2017).

Psychological Resilience (Southwick, 2014)

★ The establishment & maintenance of self-esteem

★ The ability to recover from emotional and behavioral disturbances

Isaiah Thomas and Psychological Resilience

Isaiah Thomas had to endure a hardship that many people around the world have experience

with. His younger sister passed away just a day before the NBA playoffs would begin after being

involved in a fatal car crash. He learned about this a day before Game 1 of a playoff series that

pitted his team against the Chicago Bulls. Most people would have taken some time off.

However, Thomas played in that Game 1 against the Bulls. He put on a heroic effort totaling in

33 points in a loss. Thomas showed a tremendous amount of psychological resilience that day

(Sheppard 2017).

Coastal Resilience (Beatley 2009)

★ The ability to plan for surviving coastal storms and disasters

★ Recovering from coastal storms & flooding

★ Having the knowledge of which areas of the coastal regions are vulnerable to storms and

flooding

Biloxi, MS and Coastal Resilience

In 2005, Mississippi was hit by one of the worst storms the state has ever been witness to. This

was hurricane Katrina. It devastated many places along the gulf coast. Biloxi got some of the

worst parts of the storm. The main highway to get in and out of Biloxi was destroyed, most of the

buildings were thrown into each and destroyed, and many people could not make it through this

storm. Ten years later, Biloxi’s resiliency is put on full display. They have rebuilt and restored the

roads and opened many new places for food and many other things. The citizens of Biloxi helped

rebuild their city and that is a huge part of coastal resilience (Brown 2015).

Economic Resilience (Pugh 2017)

★ The ability to recover from economic shock

★ The ability to avoid economic shock

Allen Iverson and Economic Resilience

Allen “The Answer” Iverson is amongst many great names in terms of greatest basketball

players of all time. Along with this recognition came a tremendous amount of funds. Over the

span of his career he earned over 150 million dollars not including endorsements. However,

after his career came to an end he found himself in hardships. He began to blow his money on

material things and his divorce did not help his financial situation. However, the silver lining in

this can be found in his rainy day fund from the company Reebok. Reebok has set aside 30

million dollars for Iverson that he can have in 2030. This money could help Iverson recover and

therefore display economic resiliency (Warner 2018).

Ecological Resilience (Levin 2015)

★ The ability of an ecosystem to maintain normalcy after damaging events

★ The sustainability of resources within the ecosystem

★ The ability of an ecosystem to withstand the intervention of climate and human

intervention

The Rocky Mountains and Ecological Resilience

The Rocky Mountains are sites with huge forests. Throughout Earth’s history these forests have

been able to recover from all types of disasters. However, in present times studies are now

showing that due to climate change it is becoming less and less possible for the trees in these

forests to regenerate. It is specifically becoming harder for the forests to grow back from

wildfires. Though the forests are deteriorating, these exact forests are still an example of

ecological resilience (Supriya 2017).

Cultural Resilience (Hadler 2008)

★ Ability to maintain and develop cultural identity, knowledge, and practices

★ Ability to maintain itself despite challenges and difficulties

Native Americans and Cultural Resilience

The Natives, specifically those from what is now known as the U.S., had to endure many

tragedies and hardships. They had to bear witness as their land was taken away and many of

their people were killed. However, this did not extinguish their culture. Their culture survived

the cultural genocide that is assimilation. Their culture is still alive today. This is a tremendous

example of cultural resilience (HeavyRunner 1997).

How do we measure resilience? (Langston 2015)

★ Comparing and contrasting materials

★ Measured through improved well being

★ Using indicators to explore resilience

My definition

★ “Bouncing forward” to move on after a disaster or problem but not always returning to

the original state

★ How a degree of resilience that stems from the changes that come from a disaster can

become better or worse. ○ Bouncing back does not really consider the changes that accompany disasters and difficulties.○ Bouncing back to original state may not be possible if removed too far from original state.

Importance ★ Resiliency is important for a number of reasons

○ There is always going to be some sort of problem or disaster○ It shows that humans and material objects can transform or be transformed into something that

may return the person or thing to its normal state or something greater

Ways of improving resiliency

★ Embracing change

★ Taking action now to solve problems

My proposal moving forwardIn life there are always going to be hardships or diversions in one’s path in life. It is okay to

struggle to cope with these difficulties. As long as one is learning from the difficulties and

moving forward then people and the world will become more resilient. This is needed for the

survival of life. With the increase in disasters and tragedies of all kinds the need for resiliency

has become imperative. If we the people of Earth do not become more resilient then we will

more than likely cease to exist in the near future. Therefore, we must understand what

resiliency is, how to measure it, and why it is important.

References

★ Beatley, Timothy. Planning for Coastal Resilience: Best Practices for Calamitous Times. Island Press, 2009.★ Brown, DeNeen L. “On Mississippi's Gulf Coast, What Was Lost and Gained from Katrina's Fury.” The

Washington Post, WP Company, 26 Aug. 2015.★ Hadler, Jeffrey. Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through Jihad and Colonialism. Ithaca,

Cornell University Press, 2008. ★ HeavyRunner, Iris. “Traditional Native Culture and Resilience”. Spring 1997 Newsletter Resiliency. Vol. 5, No. 1,

1997, pp. 2-5. Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement.★ Jeffries, David. “Logic | Biography & History.” AllMusic, 15 May 2018.★ Jensen, Lars. “Challenges in Maritime Cyber-Resilience.” Technology Innovation Management Review. Vol 5,

No. 4, 2015, pp. 1-6. ★ Langston, Laura, Schipper, Lisa. “A Comparative Overview of Resilience Measurement Frameworks.” (2015):

pp. 8-14. Overseas Development Institute. ★ Levin, Simon. “Ecological Resilience.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 29 Dec. 2015 ★ McAslan, Alastair. “The Concept Of Resilience: Understanding Its Origins, Meaning and Utility.” 14 Mar. 2010,

pp. 1–13. Torrens Resilience Institute. ★ Olson, Keith. Watergate: The Presidential Scandal That Shook America. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas,

2016. Project MUSE

References cont.★ Paton, Douglas and Johnston, David. Disaster Resilience: An Integrated Approach. Second Edition. Thomas

Books, 2007.★ Pugh, Sam. What is Economic Resilience? Center for Economic Development Research. 9 Jan. 2017. Satellite

Information Network.★ Sheppard, Joe. “Heartbreaking Moment Isaiah Thomas Quietly Sobbed on the Sideline Before Returning to the

Court One Day After the Tragic Death of His Little Sister.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 17 Apr. 2017.

★ Southwick, Steven, et al.“Resilience Definitions, Theory, and Challenges: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, European Journal of Psychotraumatology.” European Journal of Psychotraumatology 5.1 (2014): pp. 1-15. Taylor & Francis Online.

★ Supriya, Lakshmi. “Ecosystems Could Once Bounce Back from Wildfires. Now, They're Being Wiped Out for Good.” Science | AAAS, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 19 Dec. 2017.

★ Warner, Brian. “Bankrupt Allen Iverson Has A $30 Million Reebok Trust Fund That He Can't Touch Till 2030.” Celebrity Net Worth, Celebrity Net Worth, 4 Apr. 2018.

★ Williams, Geoff. “What Is Equifax and Why Does It Have My Financial Information?” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 19 Sept. 2017.